The Ontario Blues are the senior men's representative rugby union team for Ontario. They were founded in 2009 to compete in the Americas Rugby Championship against other representative teams from Canada, Argentina, and the United States. In their inaugural season, the Blues suffered narrow losses against British Columbia and the Wolf Pack before defeating the Rock to advance to the Canadian Final. The Blues would again lose to BC, but defeated the U.S. Selects in the bronze medal match.
In 2010, Rugby Canada changed the format of the Canadian competition of the ARC, introducing the CRC. The four Canadian teams which competed in the ARC stayed the same, but now played in the CRC, with a Canadian Selects team being chosen from CRC players, and that selects team going on to represent Canada at the ARC. The Blues went on to win four straight Canadian Rugby Championships from 2011 to 2014 during a stretch where they were 19 wins and one loss over three seasons. The Blues have since won the MacTier Cup in 2016 and 2018.
Teams In 2017, Rugby Ontario announced that their entire provincial rugby program would be branded under the name "Ontario Blues", replacing the "Ontario Storm" name which had been used for the women's team. The Ontario Blues name now encompasses all provincial representative teams of Rugby Ontario. This includes age-grade competition (U15-U18), development squads (U19 Men's and U20 Women's).
The Ontario Arrows are a privately funded elite club, which is closely related to the Blues organization, that is in negotiations to join the professional Major League Rugby for the 2019 season. The club will play exhibition games in 2018 at York Lions Stadium.
Season Records Americas Rugby Championship Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points 2009 2nd (Round-robin) 3 1 0 2 3 7Canadian final BC Bears 12 – 8 Ontario Blues
Canadian Rugby Championship Season Position Played Won Drawn Lost Bonus Points2010 3rd 3 1 0 2 2 62011 1st 5 4 0 1 4 202012 1st 5 4 0 1 4 202013 1st 5 0 0 0 3 232014 1st 6 5 0 1 4 242015 2nd 2 1 0 1 1 52016 1st 4 3 0 1 2 142017 2nd 4 2 0 2 3 1320181st4301214
Honours
Canadian Rugby Championship Champions: 6 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018)
Current squad Squad for the 2018 Canadian Rugby Championship season.
Props Rob Brouwer Djustice Sears-Duru Ryan Surgenor Pat Lynott Doug Wooldridge
Hookers Eric Howard Andrew Quattrin Hank McQueen
Locks Mike Sheppard Paul Ciulini Kolby Francis
Flankers Andrew Wilson Josh van Horne Jeremy Wright Seb Pearson Marcello Wainwright
No 8 Lucas Rumball Peter Milazzo
Scrum Halves Andrew Ferguson Mario van der Westhuizen Riley di Nardo
Fly Halves Shawn Windsor Kieron Martin Roman Cao-Riquelme
Centres Jamie Leveridge Dan Moor Andrew Coe Alex Colborne Jon West
Wingers Josh Campbell John Sheridan Kainoa Lloyd
Fullbacks Rory McDonnell Mitch Richardson Lucas Hammond
Notable players
Canada
The following players have represented Canada at full international level.
Tyler Ardron Stu Ault Ray Barkwill Brett Beukeboom Rob Brouwer Aaron Carpenter Paul Ciulini Alistair Clark Andrew Coe Derek Daypuck Tom Dolezel Andrew Ferguson Eric Howard Kainoa Lloyd Jamie Mackenzie Phil Mackenzie Mark MacSween Rory McDonell Ander Monro John Moonlight Dan Moor Taylor Paris Dan Pletch Mike Pletch Lucas Rumball Mike Scholz Djustice Sears-Duru Mike Sheppard Matt Tierney Liam Underwood Andrew Wilson Jordan Wilson-Ross Doug Wooldridge
Games played against international opposition
YearDateOpponentResultScoreTour200922 August Midwest ThunderbirdsWin38-5Pre-season exhibition200917 October USA SelectsWin27-242009 ARC Bronze medal match20108 June England CountiesLoss32-262010 Tour of Canada201010 July Midwest ThunderbirdsWin38-5Pre-season exhibition20125 May ChileLoss19-17Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour20128 May Salta ProvinceWin32-26Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour201213 MayWin27-16Ontario Blues 2012 South American Tour20134 May New York Athletic Club RFCWin38-23Pre-season exhibition201323 August Life UniversityWin36-20Pre-season exhibition201611 June England CountiesLoss73-02016 Tour of Canada201629 August Cork ConstitutionWin12-102016 Tour of Canada201729 April Old Blue RFCWin43-31Pre-season exhibition201720 May Glendale RaptorsWin43-25Pre-season exhibition
References
External links Rugby Ontario website ARC website